


(who built) the road

by sybilius



Series: Talking won't save you [3]
Category: Il buono il brutto il cattivo | The Good The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
Genre: Angel Eyes bullshit, Books, But not nearly enough sex to justify that tag tbh, But weird, Character Study, Depression Overtones, Drabble Series, Fluff, Gifts, Latin bullshit, M/M, Nightmares, POV First Person, POV Third Person Limited, Self Harm, Travelling fic, alcohol mention, erotic asphyxiation, murder mention, poor communication, they're in love and they're idiots, well it's fluff for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 17:44:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13346283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sybilius/pseuds/sybilius
Summary: It starts with a stolen horse. The rest of the time becomes suspended in movement and moment.*Blondie and Angel Eyes' ride north, in twelve snapshots.





	1. salvation sat and crossed herself

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about writing a drabble series for a while just to try it out as a writing technique-- but I always struggled with something as short as writing 100 word snippets! It's tough to find ideas that are small-scope enough to work within that constraint. But the road north for Blondie and Angel is something I've had headcanons for the entireity of writing Sighted Crows. So I suppose this was sort of inevitable.  
> It's a rotating POV, alternating chapters. Blondie's chapters are third person, Angel's are first, but vague first person. It is....how they roll. 
> 
> *
> 
> Title is from Mark Lanegan's Who Built the Road, with my thanks to tintenfischie for introducing me to the song :')

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Lungs' by Townes van Zandt. They're all song lyrics because this is a drabble series and I'm too lazy to come up with twelve titles. That's A Lot.

It's Blondie's idea, for once. 

A crime in kind, since their horses were stolen the night in that dust-choked shithole on the edge of the desert. Angel found the men that did it, cut their throats, took the money neither of them needed. 

“Sonofabitch owes me bounty,” he offers.  _ It's not like Angel will give a damn about stealing.  _

“For his head?”

“Yeah.”

Angel coaxes another horse that doesn't belong to Teach. Blondie’s guilt must show in his glance. 

“You expecting me to ride with you?”

Blondie lifts himself onto the saddle without a word, follows Angel down the trail. 


	2. ever glorious ever present now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Sharks' by Morphine.

“Tall.”

He squints across the bed, sweat drying on his bare skin.

“That it?”

“Not much to tell, except that he was my first, and the more naive for it.”

“So he--”

“He didn't know the things about me that hadn't happened yet,” I purse my lips in a smile around the pipe, “God knows he barely recognized me when I found him.” 

“Did he?” 

“It was a job, Blondie.” 

A pause.

“Would you take another?” 

No. Not now.  _ Mors ultima ratio.  _ I take another breath of the pipe under his gaze. 

“Don't ask if you don't want to know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Mors ultima ratio_ \- Death is the final accounting. 
> 
> In case you missed this context from the fic before, they are talking about Angel's first lover, Isaac. In this story, Isaac gave him the name Angel Eyes.


	3. oh and i know you’re shrewd

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'If and When we Rise Again' by Streetlight Manifesto. I always associated the song with Blondie and Tuco.

It's definitely a bad idea when Angel gets out the rope. _ I guess that's why I let him do it.  _

The jute cuts around his neck. Blondie wants gravity tugging him down to where his knees grind in the dirt. 

He nods, though he can barely breathe. Angel loops the rope again. He comes moments later, black painting the edges of his vision. 

The rope loosens.

“That's one further than you should’ve let me.”

“You woulda done it,” there's more bitterness than Blondie means. _ I'm not wrong. _

Angel's hand closes over his throat, gentle, but enough to make him wince. 


	4. sleep like dead men (wake up like dead men)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Damn These Vampires' by The Mountain Goats.

Being woken by a shout of agony isn't strange, but.

Stranger still when it's this close. 

“S’just a dream,” Blondie runs a hand through his hair, guilt written in his every movement.  _ Aegri somnia vana. _

The fire needs another log.

He doesn't talk, but doesn't seem to mind touch, settling back into the natural sharing of warmth. 

“I was dreaming.”

“About?”

It was a particular murder, four years gone. 

By the time the telling of the murky dream-tale reaches transformation of the target into snakeskin, Blondie has fallen asleep. 

Should be annoyed with that but. Not this time, I suppose. 


	5. i'll regret my whole life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Such Pretty Eyes for a Snake', with my thanks to geekboots. You are the cause of this, and also this drawing:
> 
> http://geekboots.tumblr.com/post/162800382746/anyway-heres-a-doodle-of-everyones-favorite 
> 
> I hope you're happy ;)

“Snakes, huh. Always looked a little. Evil.”

“Could say I identify with them. Always liked that bullshit about temptation, the tree of Knowledge. Can respect that.”

“You mean the Bible, Angel?”

“Yep.”

Blondie exhales smoke from his quirley, studying Angel’s desert-speckled gaze glittering in the firelight. 

“I could’ve pegged you a snake. Then again. Eyes a bit damn pretty for that.”

Angel’s face furrows, deeply suspicious. Blondie coughs on the smoke as he realizes what he just said. 

“Fits with temptation, then,” Angel sheaths his Remington. 

He fucks Blondie hard.  _ And that’s saying something. _

The bruises take weeks to fade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angel is so full of shit, tbh.


	6. go down to the netherworld, plant grapes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Samuel 15:23' by the Mountain Goats

Wouldn't have expected books in a general store this far north, least of all those with ornate spines and illuminated text. 

Blondie squints at the texts, then turns to the clerk.

“You. Got something in Latin?” 

I freeze. The conversation continues, but I slip back to the chill of the inn.

An hour later, he drops a leather-bound copy of  _ Metamorphoses _ onto the side table.  _ Actiones secundum fidei _ , thought made flesh.

That was  _ never _ the intention. 

“What, can you uh. Not read.”

“I can.”

Instead of throwing the book into the fire where it belongs, I crack open the spine.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _actiones secundum fidei_ \- Action follows belief. 
> 
> With all my gratitude to an anonymous Hellenist who begrudgingly produced some Latin for me <3
> 
> This chapter has a lot of complexity in it for me, so I think of all chapters I would love thoughts on this one (but comments and concrit on any and all are of course always welcome!)


	7. oh lazurus, were you so afraid?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Blood on my Name' by The Brothers Bright. The story about Phaeton is from Metamorphoses.

“It's in his nature to demand to drive the sun’s chariot-- understandable. But the idiot can't control it. Skies crackle with his father's watchful eye-- and before he destroys everything, Phaeton is struck down with a bolt of lightning.” 

“Divine justice,” Blondie mumbles around a quirley.  _ This the right trail?  _

“Justice for overconfidence, perhaps.”

“When d’you pick all this up?” Blondie tugs on the reins.  _ How did he get to be this kinda piece of work? _

“Seminary near where lived. Before I left home.”

“Why'd you leave?”

“Nothing interesting.” 

“Nah, why?” 

“Meant what I said. Nothing interesting to stay for.”


	8. the way the ceiling starts to swerve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Oceanographer's Choice' by The Mountain Goats.

Blondie never orders whiskey drinking, just a weak beer.  _ In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas _ . All of that is bullshit, but the last time leaves curiosity. 

His hand is loose on the bar, so it’s simple to slip the glass to his fingertips. He stares, turns his gaze up, then takes a tiny sip. 

“Don’t take it all at once,” dry sarcasm for a dry whiskey. 

“I don’t drink.”

That’s something of a lie, but then again. 

“You don’t trust yourself with a damn thing.”

“God above, Angel.”

That’s the thing about Blondie, idiot. Hates hearing anything true about himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas_ \- In wine there is truth, in water health. 
> 
> The 'last time' would have been when Blondie got himself drunk after he thought Angel was dead, in solitudinum (the previous fic).


	9. told you not to open that one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Scotch Grove' by The Mountain Goats.

When they get far enough, next town doesn't have an inn above the saloon. You can barely call what they have a saloon. 

_ Another night on the road sounds like hell.  _ It’s been raining for three days.

“Man at that house lives alone.”

“So?”

“Don't play more of an idiot than you are, Blondie.”

Another night on the road doesn't seem so bad. 

“You gonna kill anyone in our way up North, too? Pick em off till there's no one left?”

Angel’s brow knits in a rare moment of conflict,  “That might not be an option, there.”

“So, why here?”


	10. we could be laughing lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter immediately follows the last, unlike the previous chapters.
> 
> Title from 'I'm your Villain' by Franz Ferdinand. Especially fitting is the line after that 'but you'd prefer to be miserable instead'

The man who lives alone is lonely rather than alone, and that means the real pay for the spare room is listening to him prattle. 

Blondie doesn't say a damn thing about it till after an exceptionally silent fuck, the weight of him solid between the cold floor. 

“You were good at just asking him.”

“Have to be good at a lot of things, for the job I did,” it's strange that the past tense comes up so naturally. 

“So why kill him?”

“Easier,” I hesitate on the thought, knowing what it will do to Blondie, “For him. Why live?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angel is a bad person. Is this news? I hope not?
> 
> ?????


	11. walking with the wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from 'Far from any Road' by Andrew Bird.

Most days, when Blondie cracks his eyes open to the tiny canvas tent, he’s alone. 

_ Just as well.  _ Blondie doesn't have much to say on any day, but mornings always stick the words in his throat. Waking is heavy, painful.

For some reason, bruises are easier to take.  

The fire is banked, giving him an idea how long Angel has been up. 

_ He try to ride off again? _ Pulling the same shit twice doesn't seem like Angel's style.  _ But would he want me to find him? _

_ Would I want to?  _

Blondie lights a quirley before he admits to the answer. 


	12. we were the chain gang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter immediately follows the previous in time. Title from 'Who Built the Road', just to bring us back to something cyclic :)
> 
> EDIT (2/12/2019): This piece now features a full comic done by the incredible [me-fish](http://me-fish.tumblr.com/). Text to follow but gosh, give this amazing work your love! It's perfect and I'm floored by it!

 

The mountainous sweep of the landscape is searing, magnificent. The desert embraces nothingness, its choking dust erasing anything unusual. The snowy mountains spit in the face of that.

Yet here, there is almost nothing.

The pipe tastes only a little comforting. There's nowhere to go out here -- that was the idea. But sometimes, in the mornings, strange desire creeps up. The road-call, perhaps, hunger for  freedom.

Fear. That freedom is already lost.

And is this truly _consummatum est?_ The promise made?

It's a choice.

I’ll stand by it.

I tear my eyes from the landscape to return to our camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _consummatum est_ \- It is completed. Christ's last words. This one has enough personal/mythological significance to Angel that he'd come back to it only at an important moment.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for checking this out! God knows why I'm still writing for these two idiots, but this was fun! 
> 
> Shout out to all the Westfic folk, and especially Elf who piqued my interest in drabble series as a medium (and kept trying to sell me on it despite my struggles lol).
> 
> And thank you, dear readers. Would love to hear what you thought of it in the comments :')


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